Baluns are used extensively in modern wireless applications requiring differential signal inputs; however, baluns employing broadside-coupled lines generally suffer phase and amplitude imbalance degradation in manufacture due inter alia to misalignment between coupled line structures. An example of such a conventional capacitively-loaded balun realized in LTCC has been described, for example, in “A Design of the Ceramic Chip Balun Using the Multilayer Configuration”, Lew et al., IEEE Transactions on MTT, January 2001, wherein the common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of the balun disclosed therein is generally subject to significant degradation in production due, for example, to misalignment of the coupled line sections.
Any multilayer production process typically demonstrates alignment tolerances. To the extent that state of the art tolerances for LTCC layer-to-layer alignment currently are on the order of about 20 μm, with printed circuit board alignment tolerances as high as about 75 μm, there exists a need for a system and method to minimize degradation effects attributed to misalignment in the production of multilayer balun devices.